Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 716,000 shares, an increase of 7.4% from the November 15th total of 666,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 411,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Ellington Credit

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ellington Credit by 78.5% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 642,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,465,000 after purchasing an additional 282,600 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ellington Credit by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 269,850 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,885,000 after buying an additional 47,998 shares during the period. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ellington Credit during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,412,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Ellington Credit by 3.8% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 79,466 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $554,000 after acquiring an additional 2,895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ellington Credit in the third quarter worth $468,000. Institutional investors own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Ellington Credit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th.

Ellington Credit Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of EARN stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $6.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 473,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 337,364. The business has a fifty day moving average of $6.71 and a 200-day moving average of $6.86. The company has a market cap of $188.93 million, a PE ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 1.86. Ellington Credit has a 52 week low of $5.54 and a 52 week high of $7.26.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Ellington Credit had a return on equity of 15.81% and a net margin of 226.01%. The business had revenue of $4.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Ellington Credit will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

Ellington Credit Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Ellington Credit’s payout ratio is 85.71%.

About Ellington Credit

Ellington Credit Company, a real estate investment trust, acquires, invests in, and manages residential mortgage-and real estate-related assets. It acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including agency pools and agency collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); and non-agency RMBS, such as non-agency CMOs, such as investment grade and non-investment grade.